Hillary Clinton draws similarities between US and Kenya elections

Former Democratic party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has drawn parallels between the 2016 US elections and the now annulled Kenyan elections citing similar traits born from Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm based in the US.

Speaking during an interview with National Public Radio’s Terry Gross, she left open the possibility of challenging the 2016 presidential poll results in which she lost to President Donald Trump.

She turned to the Kenyan elections where on September 1 the Kenya Supreme Court overturned the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta saying there were similar peculiarities which involved the US data firm.

“You know, the Kenya election was just overturned and really what’s interesting about that — and I hope somebody writes about it Terry — the Kenyan election was also a project of Cambridge Analytica, the data company owned by the Mercer family that was instrumental in the Brexit vote,” Ms Clinton said.

Ms Clinton said Cambridge Analytica was also involved in the Trump campaign where it promised to help him and in turn, he would pick former campaign chief Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, who is currently Adviser to the President.

During the interview, she said that she would not rule out questioning the legitimacy of the election outcome should special prosecutor Robert Mueller return a finding that Russia meddled in in a way that directly affected vote counts.

She, however, acknowledged the tall order she would be facing as the US Constitution does not allow for a re-vote.

Ms Clinton pointed out that some scholars and academics had argued that one could take place but that she did not feel they had a strong ground.

She said the highest court in Kenya found that there was some meddling with the vote tallying and that is the reason they had to toss the results out.

“So what happened in Kenya, which I’m only beginning to delve into, is that the Supreme Court there said there are so many really unanswered and problematic questions, we’re going to throw the election out and redo it. We have no such provision in our country. And usually we don’t need it,” she noted.

She added that the firm was instrumental in UK’s Brexit vote where investigations have been launched over the use of data and weaponisation of information in the run-up to the vote.

When Mr Gross pressed her again on whether she would question the legitimacy of the 2016 election if there was proof of Russian interference, Clinton was categorical.

“No. I would not. I would say…” she started answering Gross.

“You are not going to rule it out?,” Gross interjected.

“No, I would not rule it out,” she said.

The democratic nominee, has repeatedly blamed Russia for her loss to Donald Trump last year.

On September 1, the Kenya’s Supreme Court annulled the results of the August 8 presidential election after a legal challenge filed by National Super Alliance leader Raila Odinga.

The court ordered fresh elections within 60 days.

The Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has set the date for a repeat poll on October 17.